70 HANDBOOK OF FOSSILS. 



in another, scattering at one moment half the sand they had just 

 piled up one way only to redeposit it the next minute in another. 

 In the gravel also may be observed a similar though less marked 

 arrangement, owing to the larger size of its constituents, which 

 of course required a still stronger current action to wash them 

 down. 



Amongst the sand we now see some shells, and set to work to 

 dig them out very carefully, for they are exceedingly brittle. 

 The best specimens are to be obtained by throwing down masses of 

 the sandy material and searching in it ; but only the stronger and 

 finer examples will bear such usage. We next notice that these 

 shells are precisely similar to those still found with living occu- 

 pants in the river below, only they are no longer of a brownish 

 colour, but owing to the loss of the animal matter of the shell 

 have an earthy, dirty-white appearance. To carry these home 

 they should be packed in bran in one of your tins with a note as 

 follows made on a piece of paper and placed just inside " Sand 



in gravel: topmost bed pit, August 2nd, 188-." Then if 



you are not able to work them out at once on reaching home, 

 you will not forget whence they came. From the appearance 

 of these sands and gravels, and the presence in them of shells 

 exactly like those in the river below, it may reasonably be in- 

 ferred that they once formed a portion of the bed of that river 

 long ago, before it had scooped out its valley to the present 

 depth. There is, however, something else in this sand-bed a 

 piece of bone protruding ; clear away the sand above it, and dig 

 back until the whole is visible. It is broken through in one or 

 two places, but otherwise is in fair condition ; remove the pieces 

 carefully one by one, and wrap them in separate pieces of paper, 

 and then proceed to search for others. These bones, which are 

 plentiful in some of our river valley gravel-beds, are the remains 

 of animals that once roamed in the forests which at that time 

 covered the country ; they were probably either drowned in 

 crossing the water, or got stuck in the mud on the banks on 

 coming down to drink. A fine collection was made at Ilford 

 by the late Sir Antonio Brady, and is now in the British 

 Museum (Natural History) at South Kensington. Besides the 

 bones of animals, you may expect to find examples of all, or 

 nearly all, the different rocks in which the river has cut its 

 valley, and samples of these may be picked out and taken 

 home. Each specimen should be wrapped in a separate piece of 

 paper to prevent its rubbing against others, care being taken to 

 note the locality either by writing it on the paper or by affixing to 

 the specimen a number corresponding to one in your note book 



